


doing it again

by tarraing



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Eighth Years - Freeform, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, Established Romione, F/F, F/M, M/M, PTSD, Rivals, Slow Burn-ish, after the war, will add more tags as this goes on
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:08:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24762895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tarraing/pseuds/tarraing
Summary: The Boy Who Lived. The Chosen One. The Boy Who Lived Twice. Harry Potter, who was now currently snogging Ginny Weasley, had many names, but he preferred 'just Harry'. The war was over and he didn't want to look back on it. They had mourned their dead, which happened to be one of the most difficult parts of dealing with the aftermath of the Great Battle of Hogwarts, the Death Eaters were imprisoned, Voldemort was gone for good, and Harry Potter just wanted to focus on the future, his future, with Ginny.Nothing could go wrong, right?
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley (mentioned), Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Luna Lovegood/Ginny Weasley, Seamus Finnigan/Dean Thomas
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	doing it again

The Boy Who Lived. The Chosen One. The Boy Who Lived Twice. Harry Potter, who was now currently snogging Ginny Weasley, had many names, but he preferred 'just Harry'. The war was over and he didn't want to look back on it. They had mourned their dead, which happened to be one of the most difficult parts of dealing with the aftermath of the Great Battle of Hogwarts, the Death Eaters were imprisoned, Voldemort was gone for good, and Harry Potter just wanted to focus on the future, his future, with Ginny.

She had been the one constant in his life, the one thing he could look forward to, one of the things he could fight for. He could be the hero that could get the girl and defeat the villain, and he did that. Ginny was his happy ending and it felt nice to have something secure and stable to rely on and look forward to, especially after so many months on the run, and so many years of fearing for his life and the lives of his friends, his family. 

Finally he could just be Harry, and he could have a life with his girlfriend, and maybe, somewhere along the line, start a family of his own. A real family. One that he had always dreamed of being a part of. But of course, before all that, he had returned to the place where his life had essentially began, Hogwarts, to repeat his last year.

Truth be told Harry Potter was not required to repeat his last year as anyone wanting to hire him would most definitely be indifferent about his qualifications, or lack of them. He did save the Wizarding world after all. But Hermione, ever an advocate for education, and all of his other close friends had decided it would be best to go back, together, one last time, and to celebrate the freedom they had all fought for, and he had half-heartedly agreed.

Not everyone had returned to Hogwarts though, which, despite being a place most could celebrate and be welcomed home to, it was also a place of death, destruction and painful memories of those they had lost. Only a handful in Harry's year that had survived the battle had returned to complete their exams, unsurprisingly most consisted of Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, as well as a few Ravenclaws.

Only three Slytherins had been willing enough to come back that year, those three students being Pansy Parkinson, Blaise Zabini and the infamous Draco Malfoy. Though they were rarely seen without each other, or even about the castle that matter, they kept together and when they were not attending classes or meal times, or gatherings, they were in their rooms in the small wing that had been constructed during the rebuilding of Hogwarts. This small wing held a common room and two separate hallways of dormitories. One for the girls and one for boys.

The "eighth-years", as everyone had dubbed the students that returned, chose their own roommates to dorm with, each room holding 4 students. Most students had chosen to stick with those in their own houses or their close friends. Pansy Parkinson, being the only female Slytherin had chosen to have her own room, and was lucky that there were enough rooms to allow it. Draco and Blaise shared a room, as they had always at their time in Hogwarts. 

Similarly to their Slytherin peers, those in Gryffindor stuck with their friends. Harry, Ron and Neville shared a dorm, leaving one bed empty which they all usually dumped their books on. Dean and Seamus shared a room, the couple, having pushed two of the beds together, took advantage of the privacy and newfound solitude that the smaller rooms gave them. Hermione however, shared with Luna and the twins Parvati and Padme. All the other eighth years had similar ideas and more or less dormed with their friends.

The familiarity of the dorms made everyone feel more at home and comfortable than they had before the war began.

Draco Malfoy, however, could not feel more out of place back at Hogwarts. His authoritative reputation had been slandered and burned after the war. No one wanted anything to do with him, the younger years were afraid of him, even the Slytherins. His father was now in Azkaban, along with Pansy's father, and his mother on house arrest, an easy sentence for aiding the great Harry Potter, who had fortunately given testimonies that spoke of Draco and his mother being held against their will by the Dark Lord, and how they did what they could to help The Chosen One without putting themselves in danger. 

The only true reason as to why Draco returned was because of his reputation. He could only rely on his intelligence and his ability to achieve highly in his education if he ever wanted to think about even having a future. And so when a letter was sent out to him of all people about returning to Hogwarts, he had to take the chance.

He was told, Blaise and Pansy alike, that they would be monitored, and that this was an opportunity to finish their education, nothing more. If they attempted anything that even so much as alluded to dark behaviour, they would be expelled immediately, no more second chances. After all, this was their second chance. And Draco was not going to let it slip past him. He finally wanted to be in control of his own life, even if that meant having to be around Potter for a whole another year.

He was currently sat in the Great Hall, a few weeks into the first term, completing his Potions essay Slughorn had set the class. Blaise was sat next to him, finishing his. Every now and then Draco would look up from his cursive writing and his eyes would wonder around the room, particularly on the Gryffindor table. Draco's silver eyes just happened to fall upon Potter, who had his tongue down the Weasley girl's throat. Draco looked away, feeling nauseous. And yet, despite this, Draco's eyes would always wonder their way back to Potter and his so-called 'girlfriend'.

Potter had always annoyed Draco, every year he just got increasingly more and more annoying. This year was no different, but Draco found Potter more persistently annoying for other reasons. PDA was definitely one of them.

"Draco, you're doing it again." Blaise muttered to his companion, not even looking up from his parchment where he was finishing up his essay.

"Doing what." Draco sighed, tearing his eyes away from the black haired boy, and going back to his own essay.

"Staring dreamily and muttering 'stupid potter' " Blaise smirked as Draco scowled at him.

"I don't do that. I just get lost in thought." Draco told him, before stealing another quick glance at the person who saved his life. He sighed, dipping his quill back into his ink as he thought about how he too had saved Potter's life, in one way or another. He knew it was Potter at Malfoy Manor that day, Potter knew that he knew, he'd said so in the Room of Requirement. There was no mistaking Potter's deep green eyes, dark inky hair, and his scar, though mangled by whatever spell Granger had put upon him, was still that famous lightning bolt. But what Draco didn't know is why he didn't say anything. The Dark Lord himself would've probably congratulated him, as would his aunt, but he didn't say anything. Draco finished up his essay and signed his name before opening up one of his class books, ready to revise what he had already taught himself years prior.

Ron Weasley strolled into the Great Hall, carrying most of his girlfriend's books as he had wanted a change of scenery from the Library, which Hermione always spent the majority of her time in. The two Gryffindors had fallen into a somewhat routine of dating and Ron much preferred it over Lavenders form of dating, though guilt often washed over him when he thought of the fate of his ex. Ron regretfully pushed the morbid thought out of his mind as he stumbled over to the Gryffindor table, spotting Harry and Ginny, replicating a certain Slytherin's feeling of sudden illness at the sight of their affection.

He slammed the mountain pile of books down onto the table, making the pair jump in each other's arms and suddenly break apart, Ginny blushed as red as her Gryffindor jumper, and Harry straightened his glasses.

"Good afternoon." Ron snapped, though he'd rather his sister date Harry more than anyone else, he still wasn't used to seeing them snogging, and in front of everyone no less. "PDA much?"

"Sorry mate." Harry chuckled uneasily, and opened his text book to start his essay.

"You're one to talk." Ginny told her brother, easily leaning against Harry. "The amount of times i've walked in on you and your girlfriend not being able to keep your hands off of each other is traumatic enough. Speaking of, where's Hermione?" She asked, as soon as she spoke the bushy haired witch entered the Hall, following Ron with an armful of books, sitting down next to him with a small smile.

"Oh good Harry, you're actually doing your homework, you know I said I wasn't going to help you." Harry nodded, not really paying attention as he absentmindedly read through his potions book.

"Well, I'm off, I'm going to meet Luna, I have a herbology assignment due and she said she would help me with it." Ginny told the group as she collected her belongings.

"Okay, I'll see you later then, come to the eighth years common room?" Harry asked her, Ginny nodded and kissed him quickly on the cheek, before strolling out of the Great Hall, Harry smiled after her.

"Ergh!" Ron said, pretending to throw up. "You're love sick for my sister, it's disgusting." Ron smirked and Hermione punched him wearily in the arm. "Ow!"

"Just leave them alone Ron, they don't joke about you and me." Hermione smiled a little. "Just because Ginny is your sister does not give you the right to police their relationship."

"It gives me every right, she's my sister, he's my best mate..." Rob complained, to which Hermione rolled her eyes, a small smile on her lips. Harry soon found himself at them smiling too. 

"You should be doing your essay and following Harry's example." She told him as she unpacked her own parchment and found her place in her essay.

"I thought that's what we came here to do?" Ron pulled out his Potions textbook and Harry barked a laugh at the two. They were like an old married couple. Harry suddenly felt the back of his neck prickle, a feeling he often got when it felt like someone was staring at him, it was a reflex at this point. Harry turned around and locked eyes with none other than Draco Malfoy who sat across the Hall, his own friend beside him.

The Slytherin, realising he'd been caught staring, tried, and failed, to sneer at Harry, before looking away, his face slightly pink with embarrassment, brushing his blonde hair out of his face. Harry raised an eyebrow and watched Draco for a few more moments, confused and curious as to what just happened. Since when does Malfoy get embarrassed?

"Harry, you're doing it again." Hermione sighed. Harry turned around, his quill had dropped ink over his not even started essay.

"Oh bloody hell." Harry said crumpling the parchment up and starting again. 

"No I didn't mean that." She said, lowering her voice to a whisper. "You're staring at Malfoy again."

"He was staring at me first." Harry complained, flicking through the textbook, hoping this conversation about his mortal enemy would end soon.

"Could we please just have one year where you don't obsess over Draco Malfoy?" Hermione asked him, her voice on the edge of sarcastic. Harry cleaned the ink away with the flick of his new wand and looked at his friend.

"I do not obsess over Draco Malfoy." He told her, and brought out a few more sheets of paper out of his bag. Hermione and Ron both chuckled at him then.

"Mate, every year you were always stalking him and telling us he was up to no good. Hell, you practically never stopped watching him on the map just to see where he was going." Ron interjected.

"Yeah well I was right that year wasn't I?" Harry told them, flashes of Dumbledore came to mind. His death, and the events that unfolded afterwards. Which marked the start of the war.

"Well Voldemort is gone. So please put Malfoy out of your mind and just pretend he isn't here so we can at least semi-enjoy our last year at Hogwarts, please. There's nothing to worry about anymore. We're all safe. McGonagall told you the conditions of his return, he's being closely monitored, it's not your job to worry about anymore." Hermione reassured him, taking his hand with a sincere smile. Harry sighed and squeezed her hand, she was right of course, as always.

"Okay, no more Draco Malfoy, no more worrying. No more war." He smiled a little and actually attempting to began his essay, the back of his mind tingling with thoughts of danger and consequence and death, which he just couldn't seem to push away, despite Hermione's reassuring words. It made it incredibly difficult to focus on the work in front of him, along with the voices that echoed throughout the Great Hall, a place where death had been immeasurable only a year before. Harry stood up, collecting his own belongings.

"Look I'm going to go finish this in the common room, I'll see you two later." Harry told them as he finished packing up his books and shoving them in his bag leaving the couple in the Great Hall. Harry walked down to the newly built common room, passing a few fellow students.

He walked up to the portrait, said the password and walked in, sitting by the crackling fire, tried starting his essay once again, but his thoughts were too clouded with his own subconscious worries of imminent danger to concentrate properly. Harry relaxed into the sofa and began to scribbled down a very vague conclusion to his essay. His recurring tiredness eventually caught up with him and the wizard was soon drifting off and falling asleep with a scribbled essay on his lap and his glasses askew. 

Draco and Blaise walked back to the common room after both completing their work, they were both going to meet Pansy by the Lake before dinner and Blaise had wanted to grab his jacket before they left. Draco always wore long sleeves and so he was never cold, his shirt and thick jumper hid the dark mark that he quickly become ashamed of. and disgusted by.

Blaise jogged upstairs to the dorms and Draco waited by the portrait doorway, his eyes casually scanned the room, eventually landing on Potter by the fire, inkwell spilling onto his chest, essay pages crumpled in his hand. With another quick scan of the room Draco realised they were the only two in there. 

He couldn't stand to watch as the ink began to pool on Potter's obnoxiously red jumper as it irked him slightly, and so he quickly spelled the inkwell onto the table and vanished the ink that had spilt away. He then spelled the essay onto the table, just as Potter rolled over. Draco pocketed his wand and sighed, rolling his eyes at the idiocy of Potter's ability to fall asleep anywhere. He pushed away thoughts of Potter's dark under-eyes and stress lines, as if he cared if Potter was getting enough sleep or not. 

Blaise joined Draco a moment later, the two walked out and Draco attempted to eradicate any mention of Potter from his thoughts as they walked on their way to join Pansy.

Most of the eighth years were returning to their dorms as Draco and Blaise walked out, despite the lack of curfew that they had. 

Ron and Hermione strolled in, spotting their friend and walking over to him, who was still asleep. Ron chuckled lightly at his friend, Hermione glared at him and put her finger to her lips, taking a look at Harry's essay.

"He forgot the newt eyes." Hermione sighed. "And the unicorn hairs." She tutted, Ron nudged her arm gently.

"Look at him 'Mione, he's knackered, i'm pretty sure newts eyes are the last of his worries." Ron gestured to the dark circles under Harry's eyes, the tense look he had on him, even when sleeping, as if he was never fully relaxed, he then sat on the sofa opposite him, going over his own essay. "I think I forgot the newt eyes too." Ron said, adding it in.

Harry suddenly woke up with a short gasp, his body tense and his hand on his wand, ready for danger. Before he took in his surroundings, and rubbing his eyes with a defeated sigh. Hermione bit her lip and sat down next to him, taking his hand. Ron sat the opposite side and put his arm on Harry's back, comforting his best friend was something that came naturally to Ron now. And Harry was the same in return, the same with Hermione. The three of them were in someways like a family now. They all relied on each other and all wanted to be there for one another. 

Harry gently leaned against his brother-like friend and squeezed Hermione's hand once more to let her know he was okay.

"'Was just a dream, not even a nightmare really, just didn't realise where i was for a second." He told them and then forced his face into a small smile. They all had plenty psychological after affects from the violence that had been inflicted on the young wizards, Harry especially, and nightmares were a recurring symptom. 

"You should go to bed, i'll help you finish your essay in the morning at breakfast yeah?" Hermione told him.

"But i've already finished it" He mumbled "And you said you wouldn't help me."

"You forgot a few ingredients mate, the newts eyes on the 3rd part of the potion." Ron told him, putting his own essay back in his bag after the corrections had been completed.

"Oh, I think I was half asleep when I wrote that part." Harry admitted, taking his glasses off and rubbing his tired eyes once more before returning his glasses to his face. 

"You don't say, your handwriting is complete chicken scratch, but like I said, I'll help you in the morning and that's one less thing you need to worry about." Hermione said, standing up with Ron.

"I'm not worried about it, I just.. it's hard to focus sometimes. And I don't want you worrying about my essays, you've got your own stuff to deal with. I'll be fine, really. If I'm not allowed to worry then you're not allowed to worry about me." Harry smiled at his best friend as he made a note in the side of his parchment about the forgotten ingredient before picking his books up.

"I cant not worry about you, about you both, that's like.. not being able to breathe." Hermione stated with soft sigh as they all walked towards the dormitories. 

"We're all fine now" Ron told them both, taking Hermione's hand. "None of you have got anything to worry about, I actually think it'll do Harry some good to worry about a potions essay, it'll take his mind of things." 

"You think? I guess it would make a change of pace to the usual... when am I gonna die scenario" Harry half-joked.

"Just try and get some more sleep okay?" Hermione asked as they made their way upstairs.

"Okay okay..." The black haired boy yawned, stretching his arms above his head. "Goodnight 'Mione" He smiled at her before walking down the corridor towards his dorm, slipping into the room and dropping his work onto his desk next to his bed.

"I'm still going to worry about him" Hermione told Ron, leaning against his tall frame, he holds around her with a sigh.

"Yeah I know, me too. I always do. But he's gonna be okay.. he always is. And if not, he's got us." Ron smiled at his girlfriend before leaning down to kiss her. Hermione smiles into their kiss as they say goodnight to one another. This is her favourite part of her day, something she had wished for since she'd ever tried to deny her crush on her best friend, and now that she had it, she wasn't going to let it go any time soon. 

Ron and Hermione eventually parted ways to their respective dorms. Hermione fell fast asleep thinking of the bright future to chase away nightmares of their past. And Ron glances at his best friend, who's still, seemingly asleep frame casted a shadow against the opposite wall. He got into his own bed and lay down feeling a small sense of peace knowing that they were all safe now, and that no one else was going to die to war of hatred and prejudice and violence. 

Ron had already lost a brother, he wasn't going to lose Harry too. Or Hermione. The two people he loved most in the world were safe. And, despite the constant loss that hung over everyone's heads, they themselves were safe and Ron basked in that feeling of reassurance as he slowly and eventually fell into a deep sleep, surrounded by friends. 

Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived, The Chosen One, sighed into his pillow and rolled onto his back to stare at the ceiling. If his dreams weren't plagued by memories of the worst parts of the last few years of his life, of death, he was also tortured with subconscious visions of the "what ifs" and "what could've been", a grotesque alternate to the slightly better reality. And if not either of those he thought of his own death and the cold empty feeling that had been brought with it, how there was nothing much afterwards, how he would wake up shaking, how he had woken up and almost died again.

Harry's hands balled up into fists, gripping the duvet that he had thrown haphazardly over himself. Harry's eyes followed the carvings along the four poster bed in an attempt to calm his slightly erratic breathing, to soothe the nerves that seemed to always be on edge. It was going to be a long night, Harry thought, as his mind whirred with promise of little sleep.


End file.
